SUSTAINABLE HISTORY AND THE DIGNITY OF MAN is a new philosophy of history.
This volume outlines how sustainable history is propelled by good
governance, which balances the tension between the attributes of human
nature - emotionality, amorality and egoisms - and human dignity needs,
such as reason, security, human rights, accountability, transparency,
justice, opportunity, innovation and inclusiveness. The author proposes
minimum criteria for good governance that are sensitive to local cultures
and histories but meet certain common global values to ensure maximum and
sustainable moral and political cooperation. Using an ocean model of a
single collective human civilisation, the author argues that we should
think in terms of a common human story that is comprised of multiple
geo-cultural domains and sub-cultures with a history of mutual borrowing
and synergies. The author argues that, today, all geo-cultural domains
must succeed if humanity as a whole is to triumph. This collective triumph
will also depend on reason and a recognition that a great deal of
knowledge is indeterminate and may be temporally, spatially and perhaps
culturally constrained, as is outlined in the author's new theory of
knowledge: "Neuro-rational Physicalism".

Dr. Nayef R.F. Al-Rodhan is Senior Scholar in Geostrategy and
Director of the Programme on the Geopolitical Implications of
Globalisation and Transnational Security at the Geneva Centre for Security
Policy, Geneva, Switzerland.

"This book is an exceptionally wide-ranging examination of past and
present approaches to the securing of a qualitatively adequate social life
on the planet. The need for intercultural dialogue is pressing and stated
as a matter of urgency in the text. That argument is well-presented and it
is helpfully accompanied by a large amount of empirical evidence. The book
is also a strong and ethically attractive humanist statement about the
value of human interaction that incorporates a vision of mutual respect
based on a mixture of scientific arguments and normative aspirations.
Those features are very impressive." Professor
Michael Freeden, Professor of Politics, Director of the Centre for
Political Ideologies, Professorial Fellow, Mansfield College, University
of Oxford, United Kingdom.